The present invention relates to a mounting apparatus for mounting a roll of tissue in a wall fixture or the like and which incorporates means for dispensing a flowable substance.
Such a mounting apparatus has previously been proposed, for example, in Glaner U.S. Pat. No. 3,151,822. That patent discloses an aerosol canister having a pair of support members mounted thereon at opposite ends. A first of the support members is mounted on the canister body, and the second is mounted directly on the canister nozzle. Each support member carries a hub which is insertable into a corresponding recess of a wall fixture. When the apparatus is inserted into the center core of a conventional toilet tissue roll, the hubs project beyond the axial ends of the roll and are thus insertable into the fixture recesses. To facilitate such insertion, the first support member is resiliently biased axially outwardly by a coil spring. Once inserted, the nozzle can be actuated to spray deodorant by axially depressing the second support member, whereupon the deodorant travels through a lateral passage formed int he second support member.
It will be appreciated that care must be taken during installation of the apparatus into the holder to prevent the second support member from being depressed, because such depression will produce inadvertent spraying of deodorant.
Also, since part of the combined weight of the canister and tissue roll is borne by the canister nozzle, the apparatus might not be usable with the type of canister which is actuated by a radial (as opposed to axial) depression of the nozzle, since the vertical forces acting on the nozzle for supporting the load might produce inadvertent dispensing of fluid.
Moreover, since the axial depression of the second support member during a spraying procedure produces a simultaneous displacement of the associated hub in a direction out of the fixture recess, there exists the possibility that the apparatus could become inadvertently dislodged from the fixture.
Another type of tissue support/fluid dispenser is disclosed in Wardell, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 2,746,898. In that apparatus the deodorant spray is emitted in the longitudinal direction of the canister. Thus, the canister must be suspended away from the wall in order to be actuable. That is, such apparatus cannot be installed in the customary manner within a wall fixture.
Among other features, the present invention envisions a dispenser capable of dispensing a foam, such as a cleansing foam. It will be appreciated that deodorant dispensers of the type described above would present shortcomings in the dispensing of foam wherein a foamable liquid is discharged from the canister. That is, the liquid would exit the discharge handle at high speed against the receiving object, such as toilet tissue held by the user, and may rebound from that object in a manner making a mess.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a combined dispenser and tissue roll support which avoids the afore-mentioned shortcomings.